Day 45 - Squamish to Vancouver

Squamish to Vancouver, 67 miles total and 23.8 mpg. Totals for the trip, 7431 miles, 27.7* mpg. Those are the stats.


We wanted to get one more hike in, so after a quick muffin/mocha breakfast we packed, loaded, checked out, and headed north one last time to Brohm Lake. We stopped here yesterday, but it was a holiday, and the parking lot was overflowing, and we had Whistler on the brain. This morning the parking lot is almost empty. There’s a loop trail around the lake, with options. No worries, a nice flat round-the-lake trail – done it thousands of times. 2.5km – no worries there either.

Well, we made it a little more interesting than that. The trail starts out flat, but then, almost immediately – after crossing a 100 m bridge – it starts going up. And continues going up. To compress the story, there is a lot of up and down on this trail. Not too steep (in most places), but definitely not flat. It’s a workout. Still, the boys and I finished in about 70 minutes. Sally-Heath was taking pictures, and hiking her pace. But when she wasn’t back 30 minutes later I began to worry, so the boys and I backtracked the trail. It wasn’t too long before “Zuckerman!” got a response, thank goodness, and in just a few minutes we were talking about the wrong turn she took, which at least doubled her hike! The good news is that nothing bad had happened. We still had all the stairs to climb to finish up, but it was easier now.

While I waited for her in the parking lot I had a nice conversation with the trash guy. Oh, by the way, the parking lot was now full! On Tuesday. Even the trash guy was surprised. Anyway, among the things we talked about was Queen Charlotte Island. It’s “the last dirt before Japan.” He described it as a wonderful place, and strongly suggested we go there. Well, we will go there sometime, but not on this trip. The trip to Queen Charlotte will require a lot of planning and reservations, and I’m pretty sure no dogs. But it’s on my list.

It was too hot (!) to leave the boys in the car, so we got some fish (halibut) and chips (and root beer, for me) and found a tree to park under. Good fish! Full of gas, we headed down route 99 to Vancouver. The scenery along route 99 is fantastic. On the west, there is the inside passage. On the east there are vertical cliffs. It was one of these cliffs that came down last week, forcing us to drive the longer way from Hope to Squamish. They amazingly had gotten that cleaned up – the road was repaved, and the railroad track was back in place – all in about 4 days. Hard to believe. Anyway, the drive was slow because the whole road is being improved for the Olympics. The average speed limit was probably about 50 kph, and the average actual speed was probably around 60kph. The trip is short, less than 100km, and it wasn’t difficult – just beautiful and slow. I’ve got to admit, I looked at every cliff and overhang, wondering when it was going to come down.


When you get to Vancouver the first thing you encounter is a 4 lane to one lane merge onto a bridge. That was a bit slow, as all 4 lanes were backed up, and the bridge traffic was slow, although it did keep moving. Basically though we did drive straight to the Oceanside Hotel very easily. The Oceanside Hotel might have been on the ocean at one time, I don’t know. Now it is surrounded by skyscrapers (it is 3 floors tall), and lost in the jungle. It is clean and nice, and right in the middle of the action. (well, off to the side enough that it is quiet) They are renovating all the rooms, but haven’t gotten to ours yet! I’m sure that’s in anticipation of the Olympics, and I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to afford them once it is done.(S-H: The lobby decor tells me that it will be a “boutique hotel” when they are finished with all the renovation.) It comes with free semi-protected parking – that’s really important in Vancouver!


After we got settled we walked to the beach – it’s a very nice and very busy beach – lots of pedestrian traffic, lots of beach usage, lots of people on the grass and benches just off the beach. Lots of people. There are more people on the beach this afternoon than you would find in all of Hope on any given day.

Then we walked Denman Street, a very busy street that is literally lined with places to eat. We finally picked one, sat outside with the boys, and had a nice meal. The boys were good, and got a fair amount of attention and petting. There are quite a few dogs (with owners in tow) prowling the street. And quite a few people. We’ll get use to this, the hoards of people, but it will take a little time. Vancouver is truly a big city. It has a downtown. It is vibrant. It is alive. I’ve been away from that for most of my life. I like it – in small doses.

We’re back in the room – planning our visit here. The Chinese Garden, the Haida cultural venues and art venues, Stanley Park, the Olympic Village, etc. We’re going to be busy, and it’s going to be different – can’t take the boys to many of these places – so they will guard the car for a lot longer than usual. Happily the weather forecast allows that – they won’t fry. I’m going to bed now – the day started around 4:30 – it was my day to do the morning dog thing, and this morning, as a result of previous overeating indulgances, there was a definite urgency from one Mr. Woody to go out. He shat 5 (FIVE) times this morning! Big ones! Unbelieveable.

So, I’m tired, it’s late, goodnight.